[daba]

Hello Geeks,

 

So today, my Dell laptop Inspiron 1526 (old, I know) told me I had almost no disk space left on C. So I followed the prompts and freed up a little bit but it's still an issue (big red bar) so I search engined it and came across some ideas one of which was to locate which files were using all that space. Bizarrely (to my pygmy tech-challenged mind), WinDirStat said that of a total 96.8GB, 43.6GB was System Volume Information and 24.9GB was Users. Windows 17.4GB, Program Files 3.8GB, Program Data 2.8GB. So not understanding it at all I thought I'd look at Users. That was me David and Public. 24.6GB was on David so I opened that thinking I would be able to find the culprit space hogging files. BUT when I opened David, the biggest files were Downloads at 4.08GB and Documents at 2.72GB. The 24.6GB appears to be unaccounted for; at least, I couldn't locate it.

 

So as you've surmised already no doubt, I don't understand these things (which is why I'm here asking for your kind help). I would like to free up space on C and solve the mystery and problem. Can anyone help please? Thank you very much.

 

Daba

 

PS I was unclear about which forum section to post this. Please forgive me if it's in the wrong area.

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Hi daba,

Would this laptop happen to be running Vista? Try reducing the allocated space for System Volume Information. To do that, see here. Make sure to right click on the command prompt and choose Run as administrator. I would allocate 3Gb for the C drive as shown in Method 2 of the guide.

Let me know if that helps.

Donna

[DonnaB]

Hi daba,

Would this laptop happen to be running Vista? Try reducing the allocated space for System Volume Information. To do that, see here. Make sure to right click on the command prompt and choose Run as administrator. I would allocate 3Gb for the C drive as shown in Method 2 of the guide.

Let me know if that helps.

Donna

[daba]

Donna hi,

 

I apologise unreservedly to you: I don't know how this got past me but... it did, no excuse. I appreciate the time and effort you took to reply. Please forgive my oversight. I'm running Windows 7, can I try the same fix? I have a 500Gb Seagate external hard drive that's showing a red bar as it's only got 50Gb left! No clue how that got full or how to empty some of the excrescence out. Don't worry though, I'm sort of resigned to my tech incompetence and will just live with it. Today though I bought a high-speed (300km) bullet train ticket on my phone to Shenzhen. Hope for the old b'stard yet...Take care and God bless you. And once again, so sorry to have wasted your time, I am a disgrace, a worm...

 

Daba

[DonnaB]

Hi daba,

No apologies necessary.
 

I'm running Windows 7, can I try the same fix?

If I recall correctly, Windows 7 sets it's own amount of allocated space for VSS whereas Vista you have to set it to a specific volume at times.

When is the last time you ran >>Disc Cleanup<<?

Try the above then please do the following:

Please download and install WinDirStat.

• Click on the desktop icon to run the program.
• Click on Individual Drives and then click on the C: drive.
• When the pacmen have finished there will be a graphic display of that drive.
• Click on the + (plus) sign to expand the folders found.
• Place your cursor on the divider line between the text above and the color graph below and drag downwards to expand the upper portion of the resultant image produced.
• Please create a screen shot and attach or upload the image to your next post so I can have a look

[daba]

Hello there,

 

I just wanted to quickly explain and apologise for not following up with this. I had to leave China after sixteen years due to not being able to satisfy their new visa/legalisation requirements. I spent 3 months job-hunting in Vietnam, in vain. It was all rather stressful and a number of things fell through the cracks in the ensuing chaos. I'm sorry. I really value your efforts on my behalf. In the end, my Dell just died and wouldn't boot so I replaced it. Thank you once again. All the best to you.

 

Daba